Ava DuVernay joined MSNBC’s “Politics Nation” as the program’s final guest of 2023 to discuss Nikki Haley’s Civil War “debacle,” which the director sees as representative of the larger Republican Party.
During a New Hampshire campaign stop, the former South Carolina governor and Republican presidential hopeful Haley was asked to state what she believed caused the Civil War. Her answer did not include a single mention of slavery, causing broad pushback.
The host of “Politics Nation” Reverend Al Sharpton asked DuVernay for her take on Haley’s comments and the failure to clarify her statement in the following days.
“I think they’re two pretty challenging issues when you think about the Nikki Haley debacle that we’re all experiencing,” the film director replied.
“Either she didn’t know that slavery was the reason for the Civil War beginning,” DuVernay continued, “Or she doesn’t want to say and wants to kind of continue the lies of omission that have become the hallmark of her party.”
The film and TV director added that the Republican Party “is thriving off the idea that you can take knowledge out of the public sphere and defend things that are unconscionable.”
DuVernay was not surprised by Haley’s comments, “but it’s certainly part of an ongoing litany of real warnings that I think we should all heed.”
“I mean, they’re basically saying what they want to do and what they will do on what they’ve already done,” DuVernay continued.
“My hope is that it is a wake-up call to the dangerous kind of deranged idea that history doesn’t matter anymore,” the film director concluded.